1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to providing an approach for dynamic interaction with a media presentation and, more particularly, to providing an approach for linking time-based metadata to media content so that as the metadata changes in synchronicity with media content during media play or rendering, information associated with the media content can be outreached in the context of the media presentation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, metadata is data that is used to describe individual data items or a collection of data items. In other words, metadata is data about data. Metadata can describe a resource itself (e.g. video disc, audio file, etc.), for example, by including the name and size of an audio file. Metadata can also describe the content associated with the resource. For example, in the context of a play of media on a computer or some other electronics device, if the media is an audio file or disc, for instance, the metadata can include artist information, album information, track names, and track numbers, etc. If the media is a video file or disc, the metadata can include actor information, director information, scene titles, production information, etc. However, such conventional uses of metadata are limited because the metadata is static and relates only to a resource as a whole. Moreover, in the limited application where metadata can relate to parts of a resource, namely the use of subtitle tracks on movies, the metadata still remains static, authoritative, and has a single fixed purpose, in addition to being limited solely to text.
In view of the forgoing, there is a need to provide an interactive media experience using dynamic and flexible time-based metadata that can be associated with portions of a resource and can adapt as the portions of the resource it describes changes during media play or presentation.